The article below is written by Mr Lau Bing from Subang Jaya to The Star paper under “Your Opinions” section published on 17 Dec 09. I tried to find the online version but unable to find, and so I typed out the entire article because Mr Lau has presented a very good food for thought for organizations to consider:
With ICT services available worldwide, people can now tab its facilities to do many things which were impossible in the past.
They can now do this at their fingertips, cheaply and faster, so long as there is an online or Wifi Internet connection to let them contact the person at the other end. The best part is that this is virtually free.
Needless to say, you can do all this right at your own home.
All you need to do is to allocate a room for office use in the house, and then equip it with a complete computer system with a webcam and printer.
Usually employers will take care of all the expenditures and other office supplies as well, because the company can save thousands over the long term by having the staff working from home.
You are now ready to start, provided you are the boss of the company, or you are asked to do so by your employer. If employees work from home, it would also help the company cut down on office rentals which is getting costlier through the years.
With sales and marketing staff working from home, the company could give up the rental of a complete floor of a building it currently occupies on lease.
This could mean tremendous savings on rentals for the year and could help keep administrative costs down, which is good at a time when companies are looking for ways to cut down on operation costs.
Traffic flow during rush hour will also get better with fever motorist on the road, when a large number of employees work from home.
That means staff don’t have to show up at the office anymore, except on certain days to forward their reports. Of course, if they have to get in touch with the management at the office, they can do so via teleconferencing at home or in a “kopitiam” via Wifi.
It doesn’t matter how the messages get through so long as they do.
The other benefit is that nobody needs to double-park in township areas anymore, because they can have their lunch at home.
That means there would be ample parking lots available for other motorists to park their cars during lunch breaks. Last but not least, this would also help create better family ties.
